More Grief
by starsword
Summary: Alex is summoned by MI6 for yet another mission, he's sent to another boarding school similar to Point Blanc. This time, however, he doesn't go alone. Yeah I'm crap at summaries... ON HOLD
1. A Change In The Routine

**Chapter 1 – A Change To The Routine**

Alex Rider walked his bike through the school gates of Brookland's School and made his way over to the bike racks; taking his bike lock out of his school he locked his bike up and then headed towards the school building.

'Hey Alex!'

Alex turned round and saw Tom Harris waving him over to a group of boys; Alex paused for a moment before sighing and made his way over to the group.

'Hey Tom' he said when he got there. The other boys gave him some odd looks; MI6 had managed to get Alex back to England in time for the new school term with about a week to spare. A week that Alex had used to get up to date with all of his work.

'Hey Alex. Where you been? You were away the end of last term' one of the boys asked, he was shorter than Alex with black hair. Alex shrugged.

'I was ill, so Jack took me away to see her parents in America when I was better as a recovery holiday' Alex replied, 'We only got back last week so I've been trying to get up to date on all my work.'

Marcus, who had just spoken, raised his eyebrows; 'Long holiday.'

Alex shrugged, 'I was really ill.'

'What was wrong with you?' another boy asked, he was a little taller than Alex and, like Marcus, had black hair, Karl was giving Alex a piercing look as if he didn't believe any of what Alex was saying.

'Bad case of food poisoning, had to go to hospital for it' Alex replied; he breathed a silent sigh of relief when the boys' attention was drawn by someone walking through the school gates.

'Whose that? New kid do you think?' Karl asked the others.

'Looks like it, wonder where she's moved from' Tom answered, looking at Alex with raised eyebrows; Alex shook his head, he wasn't going to tell Tom about his latest mission anytime soon. He looked over at the girl that the rest of the boys were looking at; she was about Alex's height with reddy brown hair, Alex could see two red streaks in it either side of her face. Just then the registration bell rang and everyone headed into the school building.

The rest of the morning passed fairly uneventfully until lunchtime; Alex and Tom got their lunch from the canteen and sat down at their usual table and started talking quietly.

'Alex what really happened over the holiday? You were gone for ages' Tom asked him; Alex shook his head.

'I can't tell you hear Tom. We can meet up some time at mine and I'll tell you then' Alex replied; Tom shrugged but he knew Alex would keep his word.

'So what do you think of that new girl then?' Tom asked him as Karl and Marcus came and sat with them with two of their friends. Paul was the same height as Alex with brown hair and brown eyes, Jake was similar to Paul in the fact that he was the same height and had brown eyes but he had blonde hair instead.

'Well Mrs Smith likes her anyway; she reads a lot of different types of books so she'll get along with that batty woman anyway' Paul answered, Mrs Smith was their English teacher and was always trying to get her students to read more. Some of the boys laughed.

'We got sports next and it looks like we're in the gym, maybe we can distract her on the bar and see what happens' Jake said, he was one of the boys in the school who liked to see others make fools of themselves. The boys continued to talk around Alex, while he just listened and kept glancing around the dining room, taking in where everyone was. It was a habit he had picked up from his missions with MI6; he noticed the new girl was sitting at the end of one of the tables by herself. For a few moments he watched her then turned back to the conversation at his own table.

About an hour later Alex, Tom and the rest of their year were in the gym waiting for their PE instructor, Mr Phelps, to come out of his office; after ten minutes of a lot of noise and laughter the teacher came out and the class quietened.

'Alright, today we're on the ropes, mats, and bench; we've also got the bags out so you can have a go on them as well. Split up into groups and make sure you have a go on everything' he said; the class stood up, some muttering darkly, and went to the different apparatus.

'What you going on, first?' Tom asked Alex as they stood up.

'Probably the ropes, then I'll go onto the bags. Haven't had a go on them in a while' he replied, 'You?'

Tom grinned, 'Same. Can't do anything on the bench or the mats so there's no point really.'

Alex grinned and the two friends made it over to the ropes. Alex and Tom grabbed two ropes, the new girl was on the other side of Alex, and started to climb up. About half way up Tom decided he'd had enough and started to make his way back down.

'See you at the bottom' Tom said to Alex, grinning. Alex nodded and concentrated on getting up to the top. Not many students and Brookland could make it to the top of the ropes, Alex was one of those that could and, it seemed, the new girl could as well. When he reached the top Alex realised his mistake, the bullet wound on his shoulder was starting to ache slightly and he still had to get back down. Cursing slightly Alex started to make his way back down as quickly as he could without doing anymore damage to his shoulder, unfortunately someone on the ground thought it would be funny to start spinning the ropes around. There was someone on each of the four ropes and each one of them was being spun around, Alex cursed their timing and looked down to see Jake and a few other boys at the bottom of the ropes; for a moment he thought of yelling at them to stop but quickly put it out of his mind when he realised they'd just laugh at him and spin it harder. Alex tried looking for the teacher but saw him leading someone into his office with a bloodied nose, or at least Alex thought that's what was wrong with them, he couldn't tell very well while he was being spun around almost at the top of a rope. The dull ache in his shoulder was getting worse and Alex realised that if he didn't get off the rope soon he was going to do some serious damage to his shoulder; weighing up the options he realised he could either continue down, stay where he was, or jump. Alex took his best option and, timing it carefully, let go of the rope. The boys standing underneath the ropes saw him let go and quickly got out of the way as Alex twisted in the air and landed, almost cat-like, on the mats below the ropes. There was a few moments of silence while Alex stood up and then everyone started talking again; Tom came up to him.

'That was great Alex!' he said excitedly; Alex grimaced slightly.

'I had to otherwise I was gonna do something to my shoulder' Alex said quietly; Tom frowned slightly and then realisation struck him.

'The bul-'

'Yeah' Alex said quickly, checking to make sure no one was listening, 'Come on let's get to the bags.'

The two boys were making their way over when Miss Bedfordshire walked into the gym.

'Alex! There's someone in the Headmaster's office who wants to see you!' she called through the gym doors; Alex sighed.

'Who do you think it is?' Tom asked him as he turned to walk out of the gym.

'Knowing my luck, someone I don't want to see' Alex replied and walked out of the gym, following Miss Bedfordshire to the Headmaster's office. When he stepped into the office he knew that what he'd said to Tom in the gym was correct.

'Hello Alex'

'Hello Mr Crawley' Alex said in a slight monotone, sitting in the chair next to Mr Crawley's.

'Alex, Mr Crawley is here to take you to your uncle's bank, apparently something of his has cropped up and they think you should see it for yourself' the Headmaster told him; Alex nodded knowing full well what it was the 'bank' wanted him to see, it was Alan Blunt and that meant a new mission.

'I'll go collect my stuff' Alex said.

'I'll meet you at the front of the school, Alex' Mr Crawley said.

Alex nodded and walked out of the office back to the gym and changed back into his school uniform before picking up his sport's kit and school bag and walking back to the front of the school. Once there he saw Mr Crawley standing outside a black BMW waiting for Alex, when he saw him come out of the school doors he waved him over and let Alex climb into the back seat before climbing into the seat next to him himself.

It took about 10 minutes to get to get to MI6 headquarters, through which time the occupants of the car were silent. When Alex was let out of the car at Liverpool Street he looked up at the building that, to the public was known as the Royal and General Bank, was the headquarters for MI6.

'So what do they want me to do this time?' Alex asked Mr Crawley as he was led inside the building.

'Can't say, seeing as I don't know; sorry, Alex' Mr Crawley answered; Alex had the impression he knew more than he was letting on. He was led into the lift and then to Alan Blunt's office, a place he had hoped he wouldn't be seeing in a long time; unfortunately it seemed whoever listened to all his wishes concerning MI6 turned a deaf ear to them. Mrs Jones was sat in a chair in front of the desk sucking a peppermint, as she always did whenever Alex saw her, and Alan Blunt was standing with his back to the window facing the door and Alex.

'Thank you Mr Crawley. Alex, come in; take a seat' Alan Blunt said as Mr Crawley left and Alex walked in, sitting in the chair next to Mrs Jones'.

'How are you, Alex?' Mrs Jones asked him, Alex shrugged.

'Getting there' he answered; Alan Blunt, as was his nature, went straight to the point.

'I won't mess around Alex; as you know we are very pleased with your success rate and your abilities. We need you to go on another mission for us as soon as we are able to arrange it' he said; Alex sighed.

'What if I say I won't do it?' he asked, knowing what would be coming next. Alan Blunt sighed.

'I'd hoped we were past that now, Alex' he said; Alex snorted. Blunt sighed irritably, 'Alex you know that your guardian is only in this country because we are arranging it; if you do not do these favours for us then I'm afraid our favour for you runs out as well.'

Alex smiled sourly, 'Why does that not surprise me?' he muttered to himself.

'What is it you're going to make me do this time?' Alex asked them; Mrs Jones shot Blunt a look, which he pointedly ignored.

'You see Alex there is another boarding school been set up, and it's not far from where the Point Blanc academy was set up; this time it's for both boys and girls but there's a difference to the Point Blanc academy-'

'It's not run by a psychopath?' Alex asked, Blunt looked annoyed.

'This time it's been set up for young people who are in arranged marriages and do not get along as well as for delinquents; the other difference is that it is targeted at anyone who can afford to send their children there not just for incredibly rich families. There is one similarity and that is that it has been started by Hugo Grief's half-brother. What we want you to do is-'

'Oh no' Alex said sitting up, 'No offence Mr Blunt but there is no way I can do this. Last time I went to a boarding school they tried to dissect me alive and I had to snowboard on an ironing board down an advanced black run and across a train line almost getting killed in the process whilst being chased by people with guns on snowmobiles-'

Blunt put up a hand, 'Alex we understand you would not want to do this but it is important. There is one difference for you as well, we have managed to obtain someone to go along with you. Think about it Alex and then come back here on Thursday after school with your answer and you can meet your partner for this mission.'

Alex had no choice but to nod and stand up ready to leave.

'See you on Thursday, Alex' Alan Blunt said as he sat behind his desk; Alex didn't even bother a wave he was so angry but he just walked straight out of the office and down the stairs, slamming the door shut as he went.

'Well that went fairly well' Alan Blunt commented. Mrs Jones looked at him sharply.

'This is a bad idea, Alan. If he's recognised then we could lose possibly our best agent as well as a 14 year old boy.'

'Mrs Jones I afraid we have little choice in the matter. Alex will come to us on Thursday with, I presume, a positive answer for us and he can meet his partner. Hopefully they'll get along well, otherwise we may have a problem.'

Mrs Jones sighed and shook her head, sometimes she couldn't believe the way Alan Blunt's mind worked.

_A/N: So what did you think? Please R&R that way I can make any amendments if I need to. Thank you to anyone who's reading this. I've got some other stories up if anyone's reading those as well, can someone please review on my Pleasure and Partiality one. Pretty Please…_

_Ciao for now_

_Starsword_


	2. Answers And Meetings

**Chapter 2 – Answers And Meetings**

Alex walked back from MI6 to his house in Chelsea after his meeting with Alan Blunt; he had a lot to think about and the long walk provided more than enough time. He knew it was stupid to even think about going on the mission, but if he didn't then Jack would be sent back to America and that would leave him alone in England without a guardian. He kicked a random stone along the pavement as he drew nearer to his Uncle's house; it was obvious they knew he didn't want to go on this mission, it was more certain than any of his others that he would be killed in the process. When he'd left Point Blanc he'd very nearly been killed in one of the most inventive ways that anyone had thought up after that, unless you counted Cray's attempt to kill him in a real life stimulation of his game, and he had never wanted to do another mission again; but not long after MI6 had managed to drag him into another mission, he was only supposed to go to help some CIA agents into the country but he'd still ended up having to stop General Sarov from setting off nuclear weapons. Alex shook his head as he thought about what Blunt had said about a partner. _Why do they think I need a partner now?_ He thought to himself, _I could have done with one on the first one, someone who had a bit of experience maybe, but now? What's the point? They probably haven't got any experience at all, I'm gonna have to be watching out for them the whole time and probably end up getting us both killed because of it._

Alex kicked a stone and it went flying into the hedge by the side of the pavement. He didn't want to do this mission, he didn't want to do any more missions at all, but if he had to do it he didn't want to do it with another person; look what Turner and Troy had been like, they'd hated him from the word 'go'. When he walked through the front door he was in an incredibly bad mood; the walk had done nothing to calm him down after the meeting with Blunt and he knew he was going to have to go back with a positive answer for Blunt no matter what he actually wanted to do. Jack sensed his bad mood and tried to ask him about what had happened, with the muttered reply of 'MI6' she dropped it and silently fumed herself. Jack had never liked the fact that MI6 kept getting Alex to do missions for them, in her opinion he was too young and she was sure Ian Rider would never had wanted Alex to become a spy like him, though she had to admit he'd done a good job of training Alex to become a spy. The rest of the evening passed in almost silence, with neither Alex nor Jack venturing a lot in the way of conversation; when Alex was about to go upstairs to go to bed, however, Jack called him back.

'Alex, what exactly are they making you do this time?' she asked him; Alex sighed and went back into the living room, at times like these Jack was the only person he felt he could talk to. Jack listened quietly as Alex relayed everything from when he'd met Mr Crawley in the Headmaster's office right up to when he'd walked out of MI6 headquarters. When he'd finished Jack sighed.

'Well Alex it's up to you. I don't mind going back to America for a bit and then coming back and renewing my VISA as long as you've got somewhere to stay. Knowing MI6 I doubt we'd get away with you staying on your own and I'm not willing to take that risk anyway; if someone from Scorpio or something comes along and tries to take you out-'

'Jack, calm down' Alex said, 'No ones going to come after me unless I'm on a mission. And it's Scorpia not Scorpio.'

Jack rolled her eyes at the attempt to make light of the situation, 'Ok well, like I said it's your choice Alex.'

Alex nodded and then slowly made his way up to bed. Did Jack mean it when she said she'd go back to America and renew her VISA? He knew she would but Alex knew it would be a lot less hassle and a lot less expensive if he went on the mission, plus MI6 would probably try and stop Jack leaving the country, all so he'd go on one of their stupid missions for them. But why didn't they just send this new mystery partner by themselves? He was probably going to endanger the mission by going anyway in case he was recognised. Alex sighed, rolled over and attempted to get some sleep before school tomorrow, unfortunately for him, tomorrow was Wednesday and that meant that, in 48 hours time, he'd have given his answer to Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones and would most probably be preparing for a new mission.

& & & & & & & & & &

How Alex made it into school the following day he never knew, his thoughts were still filled of Alan Blunt, Mrs Jones, the new mission, and, most of all, the mystery partner. He saw Tom standing with the others from yesterday and walked over to join them.

'Hey Alex. What did they want you for yesterday?' Marcus asked.

'Some of my Uncle's things were found at the bank the other day and they wanted me to go and see if they were worth collecting; you know in case they had any sentimental value' Alex answered.

'What was it?' Marcus asked again. Alex shrugged.

'A few letters, one or two pictures, that sort of thing' he answered; he was saved any more questioning by the registration bell. The group of boys walked into the school building and into their classroom; the other students at Brookland milling around them.

They had PE again that day; Alex never understood why the school didn't separate their two sessions of PE up to different ends of the week instead of one day after the other. They were doing the same as they had been yesterday; Alex stayed away from the ropes not wanting to repeat what happened yesterday, instead he and Tom headed towards the bags. The bags were a row of four punch bags that the students could use to enhance any skills they had that required the bags, in Alex's case it was karate that he usually used the bags for.

'I'll sit and watch for a bit' Tom said, Alex nodded; mostly the bags were used for people to let out stress, since his first mission with MI6, and a lot more since meeting Scorpia and Nile, Alex was keen to enhance his karate skills; if he was ever faced with another opponent like Nile he wanted to stand a little bit more of a chance than he had last time. For almost the entire lesson Alex used various karate moves to keep the bag swinging, administering others whilst it was still swinging round back to him; when he finally stopped and sat down to watch as Tom started to attack his bag he looked around at the rest of the class; some girls were on the mats doing various gymnastics moves, at the edge stood the girl who had started yesterday, Alex still wasn't sure what her name was, it seemed the other girls were laughing at her, probably saying she wasn't very good and therefore didn't want to do anything. He watched as she stepped forward and the other girls stopped laughing to watch her, though they still had arrogant smiles on their faces. The girl straightened up and then performed a series of flips, cartwheels and springs that wiped the smiles off of all of the girls' faces; Alex had to admit he was impressed. Just then Mr Phelps told them to go back to the changing rooms and get ready for their next lessons.

& & & & & & & & &

Their next lesson was Spanish, one of the few lessons where Alex could get away with not paying a lot of attention; thanks to Ian Rider's help Alex had become fluent in French, German and Spanish, meaning these lessons could be used to do any extra homework he had gained. When the lesson began the teacher turned to the new girl.

'Do you speak any Spanish at all?' she asked her, the girl nodded.

'I was taught Spanish at an early age' she answered. The teacher nodded and Alex couldn't help but listen to what was being said instead of trying to finish his Maths homework.

'Could you tell us about yourself in Spanish then, please' the teacher asked her.

'Mi nombre es Nikita, Soy 14 años y me moví adentro con mi madre después de que mis abuelos murieran hace un año. Me trasladé a Brookland después de ir a St Harvey. Mi padre murió cuando era 3 años y me moví adentro con mis abuelos alrededor de un mes después de que él muriera' she said clearly. (_A/N: I'm using an online translator seeing as I can't speak a word of Spanish coherently, so if it's all wrong don't blame me, please)_

'What did she say?' Tom whispered to Alex; Alex always sat next to Tom as Tom wasn't very good at learning Spanish, so usually helped him out in the lessons.

'She said: "My name is Nikita, I am 14 years old and I moved in with my mother after my grandparents died a year ago. I moved to Brookland after going to St Harvey's. My father died when I was 3 years old and I moved in with my grandparents about a month after he died."' Alex replied.

'Wonder why she didn't move in with her Mum' Tom whispered; Alex shrugged, and spent the rest of the lesson trying to do his Maths homework whilst the teacher had her back turned.

& & & & & & &

After school had finished the next day Alex started to make his way out of the school gates he noticed Michael Cook and two of his friends following Nikita out of the school grounds and along the road; frowning slightly, knowing that they probably up to nothing good, he followed them. When they turned the corner into a quiet street that went around the outside of the park Michael and the other two caught up to her and grabbed her arm, spinning her round and taking her school bag off her shoulder.

'New kid right? Well we forgot to tell you a few of the rules concerning Brookland-'

'Firstly that you mind your own business and leave people alone unless you want another lesson behind the bike shed' Alex said, coming up behind them; Michael and the two boys next to him turned around, Michael paling slightly at the sight of Alex; before anyone could say anything else, one of the boys, Anthony, yelled in pain as his legs went out from beneath him. A fist slammed into the side of Matthew's head and another found itself a place in Michael Cook's stomach. Gasping in pain and shock the three boys moved off, shooting glares at Alex and Nikita.

'Good moves' Alex commented, handing Nikita her bag.

'Thanks' she muttered, taking it off of him and putting it over her shoulder. They stood in silence for a few moments.

'Well I better be going, I've gotta meet someone in a bit. See you tomorrow' Alex said and turned to walk towards Brookland so he could pick up his bike and make his way to MI6 headquarters.

'Yeah; and thanks Alex' Nikita said; Alex smiled slightly and then started at a jog back towards Brookland.

About fifteen minutes later Alex found himself locking his bike up outside the Royal and General bike and climbing the stairs into the foyer; inside he saw Mrs Jones talking to the receptionist, she turned when she heard someone enter.

'Alex! Alan Blunt is waiting for you in his office. I'll take you up there but then I have to meet someone down here, your new partner in fact' Mrs Jones said, seemingly a little uncomfortable with the topic of his partner and led Alex up to Alan Blunt's office; once there she left them again almost immediately. Alex was left standing by the door facing Alan Blunt from across the room.

'Come in and sit down Alex, this may take a while and we have to wait for your partner anyway' he said, indicating one of the chairs in front of his desk. Alex didn't move.

'I haven't given you my answer yet' he said; Blunt sighed irritably.

'Alex I'm in no mood for stupid games. If you are doing the mission then sit down if you're not then you can go back to the foyer and wait whilst your guardian is arrested so we can sort you out with somewhere to stay.'

Alex went and sat in the chairs, looking determinedly out of the window.

'Good, now all we need is for Mrs Jones to return with her niece' Alan Blunt said.

'Her niece?' Alex asked, despite him not wanting to say anything to Blunt at the moment.

'Yes, her friends got into a spot of trouble with some drugs; she agreed to help us out if we let them go' he replied; just then the door opened and Mrs Jones returned, leading a girl with reddy brown hair and two red streaks either side of her face.

'Nikita?' he asked, slightly shocked; the girl looked up.

'Alex?'

'I take it you two have met' Blunt said and indicated that Nikita should sit down in the chair next to Alex's. Neither of the teenagers made any move to answer, just looked at anywhere in the room except straight at him; it appeared that Nikita didn't really want to be there either.

'Now you are both here we can tell you a little more about the mission you are about to undertake. Here are two prospectuses about the school; you will be going as if you are in an arranged marriage. What we want you to do is look around the school and see what happening at different places; it is to like Point Blanc to be immune to suspicion, the success rate is almost as good as that of Point Blanc and we want to make sure nothing similar is happening there. From what our surveillance teams have come up with it seems as though large trucks are going in and out of the academy more times than is normal for a school or institute. You can make up your own backgrounds if you wish, I would advise you not to use real names though, it could be dangerous to your families-'

At this both the teenagers tensed slightly, Blunt carried on regardless.

'And to your friends. We are going to make you both into slight delinquents so that, if we have to, we can alter the idea of your going under the pretence of an arranged marriage; however I would like to stick to that as it means you will both be together quite a bit and therefore you may get more done. Now I believe all that is left is for you to go and visit Smithers. Any questions?'

'We just have to make up a complete history for ourselves?' Nikita demanded, 'And then be sent to an academy run by someone whose related to a lunatic? No thanks on second thoughts my life's brilliant.'

Blunt looked at her with a fixed stare, 'I'm sure your friends would appreciate a few years in prison for your happiness. Possibly even life is we can manage it.'

Nikita glared back at him for a moment then looked at the floor.

'Good. Then I'll send for Smithers' Blunt said; Alex stole a glance at Nikita but her hair was covering a part of her face.

'Whose Smithers?' she asked.

'He's the guy that'll supply us with gadgets' Alex replied, he had to admit he liked Smithers best out of everyone at MI6; he'd been the one to supply Alex with a bike when he thought he had to go after Cray by himself, Smithers was Alex's only real ally at MI6. The door opened and an enormously fat man with several chins walked in carrying a very large brief case and wearing a very large smile.

'Nice to see you again, old chap' he said, extending his free hand to Alex.

'Hello Smithers' Alex said, accepting the offered hand.

'I'm guessing your Mrs Jones' niece' Smithers said to Nikita.

'You could say that' Nikita replied, shooting a glare at Mrs Jones.

'Smithers; I'm in charge of all your gadgets for missions. How do you do?' he offered his hand to Nikita who took it with a small smile.

'Alright, Smithers, enough small talk what have you got for them this time?' Blunt interrupted.


	3. Gadgets And Gismos

**Chapter 3 – Gadgets and Gismos**

Smithers set his case on Alan Blunt's desk and opened it so the lid was facing the two teenagers.

'Right, well I was able to take into consideration what we're going to be doing to change your appearances slightly so I was able to make a few extra little gadgets for you two' Smithers said rummaging around in the case.

'Start with Alex then, as I'm presuming you already had some ready before we told you Nikita would be joining him' Mrs Jones said, looking at the two teenagers whose eyes were fixed on the man and case in front of them.

'Well I managed to make you another ear ring like last time old chap; I hope the hole hasn't closed up otherwise we'll have to re-pierce it; works exactly the same as the other one and does exactly the same sort of thing. In fact I think it looks exactly the same, quite outstanding to make it exactly the same if you ask me… anyway I've also got you an iPod, it's slightly heavier than the ones you can get commercially and everyone caries around with them nowadays' Smithers said taking out a small stud, which Alex noted was exactly the same as the last one Smithers had given him, and a silver iPod.

'What does it do?' Alex asked.

'Ah, now there's the brilliance of it: it does quite a few things. Like the Nintendo DS we gave you, you can hear conversations up to 100 metres away just go into the Menu and select 'surround' from the sound options, it's also a bug detector just select 'black and white' from the screen option menu. You can also record conversations by holding the fast forward button down for five seconds whilst in the' surround sound' option. Press down the play button three times in a row and it'll send out a distress signal saying you want to pull out of there. There's also a slight mapping device on there in case you go for a wander around the site and need to map anything, just select the '16 bit' option from the screen options menu. The best thing about it is you can put music on it as well and use it as a normal iPod, just in case you get bored on the journey. I managed to make one for each of you. Now the next thing I have for you is this.'

Smithers pulled out a can of deodorant spray; it looked exactly like the Lynx ones you could buy in the shops.

'This is a slight form of pepper spray and can provide a smoke screen; two separate compartments you see. Turn the nozzle clockwise for the pepper spray and anticlockwise for the smoke screen; press the nozzle down and your away. Now you probably recognise these.'

Smithers pulled out a pair of ski goggles and placed them with the other gadgets on the desk in front of Alex.

'Night vision goggles, same as last time except these can also show heat sources through up to 6 inches of most materials, press the green button for the night vision and red for the heat seeking, press both and they return to normal vision goggles; handy things for seeing if anyone's in a room you want to go into undetected. And finally…'

Smithers looked in his case and took out an ear hoop.

'They told me you're getting another piercing. Now listen very carefully, you see all these small stones in the ring? Each of them holds a tiny stunning dart; after your last trip to the Alps I think you should have some type of defence. To activate them press one of the stones and keep your finger there for three seconds, take your finger away and face the person you want to hit. There are heat seeking devices attached to each of them so they _should_ hit someone each time. Now this ring is similar to one I'm going to give Nikita so both of you listen up' Smithers pulled out an ear ring almost identical to the other one he'd given Alex, 'Press the stone for five seconds and it sends out a distress signal to the other ear ring of the set, in other words to each other, press it for ten seconds and it sends out a distress signal to here in case you can't send a distress signal any other way.'

'Thanks Smithers' Alex said, looking at the many gadgets Smithers had provided him with and feeling a rush of gratitude towards the large man.

'Not at all old chap. Now, let's get your ones sorted out' Smithers said, turning to Nikita who had been sitting silently next to Alex the whole time.

'This should be useful' Smithers said pulling out a small compact mirror that he opened, inside was some blush.

'The powder can be used to see fingerprints that have been placed within the last hour, mirrors are just handy things to have with you, and you can look behind you without most people noticing. If you press the back of it in you'll find a dip and 2 strands of nylon wire that can hold up to 200 pounds of weight each. Now these similar to the set Alex has,' he said taking a pair of ski glasses out of his case, 'except I couldn't get them to see heat through material in time but I have managed to put on a bug detector so any bugs show up as red dots. The buttons are the same as Alex's; your red button will activate the bug detector.'

Next he pulled out a piece of cardboard with many ear rings attacked to it. He indicated to one set that were very similar to the ones he'd given Alex.

'Press the left one down for five seconds and you'll send a distress signal to Alex, press the right one down for five seconds and you'll send a distress signal to us; the left ear ring has a gold back and the right one a silver one, just so you know which one is which. Now these two' Smithers indicated another two studs that had blue stones instead of green like the first pair, 'Turn the clasp clockwise and place anywhere and the iPods can pick up their signals and you'll be able to listen to conversations where you placed the ear rings. This ring is to go in the top of your ear, again turn the clasp clockwise and drop it anywhere, this time it'll produce a smoke screen for about ten seconds. Now this is handy if you can pick locks.'

Smithers indicated to the belly bar with a dark blue stone at the bottom and on top of the clasp.

'The bar's a lock pick; take the clasp off and use it and replace,' Smithers said placing al of Nikita's gadgets on the desk the opposite side of his case to Alex's.

'Err… what happens if the piercing gets infected from using the lock pick?' Nikita asked; Smithers waved a hand.

'Anti- bacteria gel on it. You won't. If you do I'll have to alter my anti-bacteria gel.'

Nikita smiled slightly and Smithers closed his case and handed them a ski jacket each.

'Bullet proof, just in case' Smithers said with a smile at the two teenagers.

'Thank you, Smithers' Blunt said and Smithers left the office.

'Now I understand you were given a letter to give to the school today?' Alan Blunt asked Nikita; she nodded silently.

'Good. We'll send a message to your school saying you've been in a car crash and are in hospital recovering' Blunt said to Alex; Alex just nodded then he and Nikita collected the gadgets Smithers had given them and turned to walk out.

'We need you both back here tomorrow by 10 so we can make you look more like the people who you are going to be playing' Alan Blunt said.

'Right' Alex said.

'Goodbye, Alex. Goodbye Nikita' Mrs Jones said, there was a pause and then Nikita responded.

'Bye' she muttered and then followed Alex out of Alan Blunt's office and out of the Royal and General Bank.

_A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Here's two chapters for you to enjoy and thanks to all my wonderful reviewers. Gotta run!_

_Ciao for now_

_Starsword_


	4. Arguments And Makeovers

**Chapter 4 – Arguments And Makeovers**

They paused at the bottom of the steps.

'You want to walk or take the bus back?' Alex asked.

'Walk?'

'Fine by me; we'll get back late though, you might want to phone your Mum.'

Nikita looked down as they started to walk. 'Mum won't be there, she's never there; not anymore anyway. She hasn't been here since Dad drowned, she escapes to her own little world; Yassen could keep her here whenever he visited but he… he died a little while ago.'

Alex did a double take and almost walked into Nikita when she stopped at a pedestrian crossing; when they'd crossed he found his voice.

'You knew Yassen Gregorovich?' Alex asked; Nikita stopped and looked at him, frowning.

'You knew him?' she asked. Alex started walking again; he didn't want to get into a conversation about what had happened to him whenever he had run into Yassen Gregorovich; least of al the fact that he had killed his Uncle. Nikita ran to catch up to him.

'Alex?'

'He worked for Scorpia' Alex responded, keeping his eyes fixed in front of him. Nikita's eyes went to his face and she watched him closely.

'What _is_ Scorpia?' she asked him; Alex sighed.

'It doesn't matter' Alex answered shortly. Nikita walked in front of him and stopped, looking straight into his eyes.

'It does to me' she said; Alex's face clouded.

'I don't want to talk about it, okay?' he almost yelled, pushing past Nikita and walking off.

'You didn't know him!' Nikita yelled after him; Alex turned on his heel and looked at her as she walked a few metres so they didn't have to yell down the street at each other and let everyone hear their conversation.

'Neither did you, because if you did you wouldn't want to know about Scorpia!' Alex snapped; he didn't want to start talking about Scorpia, there were too many bad memories associated with the organisation and Yassen, including the death of his Uncle and his own near fatal encounters with Scorpia; not to mention the fact that he almost played a part in a project that would have meant the death of many school children across Britain. Alex saw tears start to form in Nikita's eyes.

'I knew him better than you did' she said quietly, blinking away her tears 'You know _nothing_ about him and what he did for me and my Mum so don't you dare say I didn't know him. He was as close to a father as I could get!'

With that last statement Nikita pushed past Alex and ran down the road; Alex watched her go before continuing to walk home at a leisurely pace; he reached his front door just as it started to rain.

After dinner Alex went up to his room and started doing some exercises for his arm; it still twinged every so often and the doctors hadn't told him to stop yet, and after the incident on the ropes he wasn't going to stop doing them in a hurry. He watched the rain pound against his window as he thought about something Nikita had said before she'd walked off.

'_He was as close to a father as I could get'_

Alex shook his head; he'd be seeing her tomorrow when they went back to MI6, if they were on relative speaking terms he'd ask her then. _Then again_, he thought, _why should I if she can't accept that I don't want to talk about something. What if she keeps asking me about Scorpia? I just want to forget about them, but she's not going to until she finds out what they are is she?_ Alex pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind as he got ready for bed; he closed his eyes and fell asleep not long after his head hit the pillow.

When Alex arrived at the Royal and General the next morning he wasn't in the best of moods, he hadn't had a good night's sleep. He'd been waking up after dreams of Scorpia and falling back into a restless sleep before waking up about an hour or so later; at three in the morning he'd given up and started looking through the files Blunt had given him on who he was going to be for the nest week or so. Mrs Jones met him in the entrance and about five minutes later Nikita walked through the doors, Alex had enough time to notice that she had a black eye and a cut across her cheek before Mrs Jones led them down a flight of stairs. Alex had been here once before to prepare for his mission at Point Blanc, now he was preparing for a mission that would be very similar to that one. Nikita was shown into one room and then Mrs Jones led him to one further down the corridor.

'I'll be back to take you up to Alan Blunt's office when you're done' she told them before Nikita went into the room she'd been shown to.

A few hours later Alex walked into Alan Blunt's office and sat back in front of his desk.

'As soon as Nikita gets back we'll finalise everything and then you can leave' Blunt said, Alex nodded. The door opened and Mrs Jones walked in followed by Nikita; Alex swallowed subconsciously and watched her as she walked to his. Her hair was slightly shorter and had been styled, the many piercings suited her and the light make up they'd put on her made her look gorgeous. Alex looked away and to Blunt, mentally cursing himself for thinking that.

'You will find a few suitcases at your homes with new clothes in there that you will be using during this mission. You will be driven to the airport and Mrs Jones will make sure you are taken onto the private plane the school has provided for you both, she will be acting as Nikita's mother so act like she is. The plane leaves on Sunday morning, be ready to leave by nine' Blunt explained.

'What? You said we could stay until after the competition. That's on Sunday!' Nikita exclaimed. Blunt gave her a fixed stare but that didn't stop her sending him glares.

'You may leave' Blunt said and the two teenagers stood and walked out of the room.

_A/N: Hello! Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers! Thank you to my readers as well! Well I hope my next update won't be as long coming. I've got my next two chapters all planned out, after that it's a little shaky at the moment. Sorry it's so short!_

_Ciao for now!_

_Starsword_


	5. An Impromptu Rescue

**Chapter 5 – Impromptu Rescue**

Just like the day before Alex and Nikita walked down the steps of MI6 headquarters, once again they paused once they reached the pavement. Nikita started to walk along the street when Alex grabbed her arm.

'We can't go on this mission like this, we've got to work together' Alex said; Nikita turned and glared at him.

'You just want me to speak to you so we can get this mission done faster?' she smiled sourly, 'Great line, Alex. I can see why none of the girls want you.'

Alex scowled, 'Fine. But when you need help at this school you can ask someone else; I'm not gonna put myself out to help someone who can't accept help when it smacks her in the face.'

Nikita turned to face him, 'You really think I can't look after myself? You know sod all about me so go crawl back up your ass!'

Alex tightened his grip on her arm, he saw her wince slightly.

'Who helped you on your first mission, Alex? Was there anyone there to hold your hand through that? Or did you do it by yourself with no help at all?'

Alex's face went impassive and he grabbed her other arm, 'Don't talk about that. You know nothing about how I got into this and why I'm a spy' he hissed.

Nikita broke his grip and started to walk towards the park.

'Running back home because you can't win an argument?' Alex snapped; Nikita turned back to him.

'Trust me when I say there is no way in hell I am going from an argument to a screaming match; I've got a enough souvenirs thanks' she indicated her black eye, cut cheek and split lip. Alex watched her walk off; he knew he had three options. Option one: follow her and try to talk to her; option two: follow her and stay out of sight; or option three: go home and forget about what had happened. Alex chose option two. He set off along the street, keeping Nikita in sight. He followed her until she turned to enter a housing estate; frowning slightly, he kept a little further behind so as not to attract her attention. Nikita carried on through the housing estate until she'd walked through to the other side; obviously she was taking a shortcut to somewhere. Wondering where she could be going, Alex saw her turn and walk into an abandoned building; even more confused than he had been before he stopped for a few minutes and looked at the building.

It had once been a block of flats; now it was unoccupied with a fence around the edge of the lot, one part of the fence slightly pulled away from the others to allow people to get in and out of the plot. A sign on the side said it was to be pulled down; Alex felt a shiver run through him when he remembered the time he'd been held hostage in a building site by a group of terrorists led by Casper. He'd later found out they'd be working for Nikolei Drevin in an attempt to drop a space hotel onto Washington. He saw a group of three boys, all fairly large, sneak into the building. Alex walked forwards into the plot and walked around to the back of the building; finding a door that was partly coming off its hinges he crept in. He waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the slightly darker atmosphere inside the site before listening out for any noise that would tell him where Nikita had gone. A few soft voices from upstairs caught his attention as he saw the three boys from outside walk up the main staircase, following the sound of the voices. Seeing another staircase to the side Alex crept silently up them until he reached the third floor. Here the floor had planks of wood missing, with a few building materials spaced out around the area; the walls had been knocked down creating a large open space for the builders to take up the rest of the floor. Alex walked along one plank and looked through a hole into a room where a group of people were gathered, Nikita was amongst them, knelt next to one boy who was lying on his back on an old mattress. He couldn't hear much of their conversation but movement from another hole caught his eye and he looked across to see the boys from outside creeping towards the room; what made him look closer was the bit of light that was reflected off something one of them was holding. Alex looked around for something he could use to distract them with and his eyes landed on a pile of sandbags that had been left by the builders that had long since left the site. He side stepped across the hole to the room where Nikita was with the people he presumed were the group of friends Alan Blunt had mentioned, and knelt next to the sand bags; he found a few coils of rope as well as a few bricks, building tools, and three torches. The door opened to the room below him and he saw Nikita stand up quickly.

'What the hell are you doing here?' he heard her say angrily to the three boys.

'Ah shut up, Kitty, you know fuck all about this fight' one of them said.

'Really? I seem to recall last time you picked a fight I managed to kick your sorry ass halfway across town' Nikita snapped; the boy bristled and raised the knife in his hand.

'Got a weapon this time, love. Come to get my money. Where is it, Peters?' he demanded, looking at one of the boys; a girl stood up next to Nikita.

'We already gave it to you' she said, 'Fuck off and leave us alone.'

'We added interest' one of the others said. Nikita slapped one of them round the face.

'You arrogant, self centred bastards' she snapped; the one she'd slapped grabbed her arm and spun her round, holding the knife to her neck. The other people in the room froze. Suddenly a cascade of sand fell into the room, knocking over both Nikita and the boy who was holding her; she managed to get away and stood up just as a rope fell down next to her, she looked up and saw Alex.

'Get up here' he called down to her. Nikita motioned for the others to get up; the girl who'd stood next to her ran over and grabbed hold of the rope, starting to try and climb up. Alex guessed they weren't as good gymnasts as Nikita was so he started to pull on the rope he'd wrapped around one of the sturdier beams; slowly she was pulled up and was able to crawl onto the planks next to Alex.

'Get one of the sand bags and take it over to that hole over there' he pointed to the one that led to the hallway outside the room, 'If they try and escape send it onto their heads.'

The girl nodded and dragged one of the sand bags over to where he'd indicated as Alex threw the rope down again; the only other girl in the room, aside from Nikita, grabbed the rope and Alex started to pull again as she tried to climb up; he felt his shoulder starting to complain as she managed to crawl up next to him. She saw the pile of broken bricks and picked up one small one and threw it at one of the boys who'd attacked them; he was still trying to clear sand out of his eyes and it hit him on the chest. He yelped in pain and the girl Alex had first pulled up emptied her sand bag into the room again, successfully blinding everyone. Nikita and the only other member of the small group left tied the rope around the boy who was lying on the mattress and the second girl helped Alex to pull him up. The two girls worked quickly to untie him and started to pull him away as Alex sent the rope down again. The last member grabbed hold and started to shin up, he was better than the others and so it took less time for him to get up.

'We need to get him out of here' he said to Alex, indicating the boy who'd had to be pulled up the whole way, 'Can you get Kita out?'

Alex nodded. 'Go. Take the stairs and go out the back door' he said; the boy smiled and nodded appreciatively.

'Thanks. We owe you big time' he said as he and the two girls part carried, part dragged, and part helped the other boy to walk. By this time the three boys had gotten over most of their blindness; Alex managed to throw the rope down to Nikita just as one of them lunged at her, she managed to dodge him and grabbed hold of the rope, starting to shin up it immediately. As Alex started to pull on the rope one of the boys grabbed the end and tried to pull it down to bring Nikita back into reach; Alex gasped in pain as his shoulder complained yet again of the hard treatment. Nikita managed to grab hold of the end of one of the planks and Alex let the rope fall into the room; he grabbed Nikita's arm and helped her up onto the main floor.

'Come on' he said, grabbing her arm and dragging her down the stairs and out the door. They carried on running until they'd left the housing estate and were half way back to Brooklands; finally they slowed to a walk, both panting heavily. They carried on walking, neither saying anything, until they reached the place where Michael Cook had tried to threaten Nikita.

'I'll see you on Sunday' Alex said, turning to walk back to his house.

'Yeah' Nikita said quietly, as he started to walk away she called him back.

'Alex? Thanks, for helping us' she said; he looked back.

'Don't mention it' he said and started to walk again.

'Alex?'

He looked back again.

'Call me Kita; it's what all my friends call me' she said before smiling, turning and walking away. Alex smiled slightly to himself as he walked back to his house; he knew Jack would yell at him when he got back for being covered in dirt and sand but just smiled wider when he knew she'd just end up muttering about MI6 and finding a way to blame them for everything that went wrong in the house when he was on a mission. He had to hand it to Jack; she really knew how to make him smile at times. Plus he and Kita were now on talking terms again, it seemed; hopefully this mission wouldn't be as bad as the others.

A/N: I am so sorry about the long wait for the update, I feel so bad I'm actually writing this in my study period at school. The teachers'll probably kill me if they catch me… oh well makes it all the more interesting. Thank you to my wonderful reviewers I love you all throws out chocolate cookies for all the reviewers and thank you to all my wonderful lovely readers throws out cookies for all the readers

_You know I think I might have to change the type of cookies everyone gets… it's getting a bit repetitive. I'll see what I can come up with._

_Ciao for now, hopefully the next update won't be too long in coming._

_Starsword _


	6. Building A Friendship

**Chapter 6 – Building A Friendship**

Alex woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of the doorbell; yawning he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and his gaze fell on the files on his desk that he'd been reading the night before. He groaned and got out of bed, putting on a pair of jeans, his Chelsea football shirt, and a pair of trainers before heading downstairs to the kitchen to see Jack. Alex paused on the stairs when he heard voices from the kitchen, he heard Jack laughing as she said something to the other person; frowning slightly he walked into the kitchen to see Kita sitting at the table laughing as Jack told her story.

'Hey Alex,' Jack said, 'Kita just came round to see if you were up, and I managed to convince her to stay for a while.'

'Hey Alex,' Kita said, smiling slightly, 'I hope you don't mind me dropping in like this.'

Alex shook his head smiling, 'Hey Kita. You okay?'

Kita nodded, 'You?'

Alex nodded and helped himself to some cereal as Jack finished her story.

'So I was standing there talking to this guy, who just so happened to be really good looking and then his _wife_ comes over and starts yelling at him for flirting with another woman; so I crept away before she turned on me,' Jack said, Kita laughed.

'Why are all the good looking ones either married or gay in this country?' Jack wondered aloud.

'Not all of them,' Kita said, 'Some of them are pricks as well.'

Jack laughed, 'Very true.'

'The way you talk about guys you'd think you hate the lot of us,' Alex said as he sat down.

'Hey we didn't say anything about the non-good looking ones,' Kita said, grinning as Alex flicked some cereal at her from his spoon.

'Why couldn't they have given me a guy to work with?' Alex asked teasingly.

'Then you would get into twice as much trouble, you need a girl to make sure you stay in line,' Kita retorted.

'Girls get into a lot more trouble than guys do; at least we can get out of it,' Alex replied.

'It's usually the guy's fault we get into trouble in the first place,' Kita said teasingly. Alex sighed.

'What did I do to deserve this?' he asked.

'I could think of a few things,' Jack teased.

'Your supposed to be on my side!' Alex said, mock-glaring at Jack.

'What and let the girly side down? I don't think so' Jack replied, grinning at Alex. He rolled his eyes in response.

'I knew I should have had a brother,' he muttered. There was a comfortable silence for a few minutes; Alex realised this was what he'd been missing for a long time, this three way bantering and joking. Ever since he'd started at MI6 he'd lost many friends, Jack was great but he needed someone his own age; MI6 may have made him hate them but he had to like them for giving him a new friend that he could talk to more than he could any others he may still have. He couldn't tell Tom about his missions, no matter how much he wanted to, but he'd be able to tell Kita if they were partners. He put his bowl in the sink and then sat back down at the table.

'You come around for any particular reason or was it just to annoy me?' Alex asked Kita, grinning as she stuck her tongue out at him.

'I was on the way back from checking on Tony and Sarah and thought I'd say 'Hi' while I was passing by,' Kita replied.

'Whose Tony and Sarah?' Alex asked.

'Tony was the one who could hardly stand from yesterday, Sarah was the one who helped me get him up, she's his girlfriend,' Kita replied.

'Have you looked through the files yet?' she asked after a few minutes. Alex nodded.

'He was exaggerating when he said we had a history to make up wasn't he?' Kita asked, Alex snorted.

'The only thing we can make up is the stuff we did when no one was looking,' he replied. 'Do you want to go upstairs and look through them again?' he asked. Kita shrugged.

'Why not? We might as well, we can't exactly take them with us can we?' she replied. Alex stood up and led Kita upstairs to his room where the files were still resting on his desk. Kita put her bag down by the desk and took out her file, at Alex's questioning look she said:

'I was planning on going to the park and learning a bit more.'

Alex pulled out his desk chair and sat on it as Kita sat on the bed, kicking off her trainers and tucking her legs underneath her.

& & & & & & &

An hour later and Jack knocked on Alex's door before opening it and finding the two 14 year olds playing on the games console; the files lying forgotten on the floor a few feet from them. She grinned as Kita tried to knock the hand set from Alex's hand and he expertly avoided her.

'Does anyone want lunch or shall I just leave you go hungry?' she asked; shaking her head as Alex jumped up as Kita lunged again and he won the race they were playing.

'You cheated!' Kita said, grabbing Alex's ankle and making him go flying onto the bed, 'You pushed me off the track!'

'You knocked the controller out of my hand!' Alex retorted, rolling off the bed and managing to tackle Kita onto it.

'Alright, break it up! Do you guys want lunch or not?' Jack asked.

'Yes please' they said in unison as they disentangled themselves from the bed sheets.

'It'll be ready in five,' Jack said, closing the door behind her. Kita turned to Alex when the door was shut.

'Still say you cheated,' she said grinning and squealing as Alex leapt towards her. She jumped over the bed and tried to run around the side at the same time Alex did. He managed to hook an arm around her waist and threw her onto the bed, pinning her down and grinning.

'Still say I cheated?' he asked. Kita stuck her tongue out and nodded, a grin firmly plastered on her face. Alex shrugged, 'Fine we'll do things the hard way.' His hands went to her sides and he started to tickle her. Kita laughed and tried to push his hands away, whilst trying to wriggle out of the way; unfortunately Alex had her pinned to well.

'No… alright, alright… you didn't cheat' Kita gasped, and tried to get her breath back when Alex finally stopped tickling her.

'Glad we got that cleared up,' he said, grinning; Kita stuck her tongue out at him and squealed as he tickled her again.

'No! Alex… stop!' she managed to gasp. Alex stopped.

'Happy?'

'Very' she replied; they stayed still for a few moments in a companionable silence, then Alex rolled over so they were lying side by side on the bed.

'Where did you live before you moved in with your Mum?' he asked her; Kita looked over at him.

'How did you-?'

'My Uncle taught me to teach French, German and Spanish when I could speak English well enough,' Alex explained, 'I understood everything you said in Spanish the other day.'

Kita nodded in understanding, 'I lived with my grandparents about ten minutes drive away a few years after my Dad died.'

'When did he die?' Alex asked. Kita looked over at the opposite wall.

'When I was three… he drowned,' she answered shortly. She opened her mouth as if to speak but closed it again.

'You want to know about Yassen don't you?' Alex asked her; Kita looked over at him, he was staring at the ceiling.

'You said you knew him,' Kita replied. Alex nodded.

'I met him a few times,' he answered. Kita sat up on her elbows and looked at him.

'He was a spy, wasn't he?' she asked. Alex shook his head.

'No,' he answered; Kita frowned.

'Did he help with MI6?'

Alex shook his head again.

'Then what-?'

'He was an assassin,' Alex replied, 'He worked for Scorpia.'

Kita froze, Alex didn't dare look at her; he remembered what she'd said about him being the only father she'd ever known and didn't want to see her reaction to what Yassen had actually been. The revelation that his Uncle had been a spy was bad enough for Alex, but if Ian Rider had been an assassin Alex wondered how he would have coped. Eventually the silence was too long and Alex looked at her; she seemed to be looking at something on the opposite wall only she could see.

'Kita?'

She turned to face him suddenly and he saw tears on her face; he pulled her into a hug and held her as she cried against him. After a few minutes she pulled away and angrily brushed the tears away and took a deep breath.

'What is Scorpia?' she asked him.

'It's a criminal organisation based in Venice,' he answered, 'It stands for Surveillance, Corruption, Interrogation, and Assassination.'

Kita was silent for a few minutes, 'It can't be true,' she said quietly, Alex looked away.

'Alex, please, tell me it's not the same Yassen that I knew.'

Alex sighed and closed his eyes, 'His name was Yassen Gregorovich,' he said; he didn't want to open his eyes and see how she'd taken it.

'He trained me to be like him,' she said, angrily after a few minutes; Alex frowned slightly as he watched her. 'He taught me self defence and he taught me different languages; he even paid for me to go to gymnastics and he left me some money in an account when he died. But it was all for me to follow him and become and assassin.'

Alex shook his head, 'I don't think he did, Kita' he said quietly, 'My Uncle taught me how to speak languages, paid for me to take karate classes, and took me on loads of adventure holidays but it didn't mean he was training me to become a spy. That's the way he lived and he wanted me to stand a chance if anything ever happened to him; I think that's what Yassen was doing for you.'

Kita turned to face him, 'How do you know that?' she asked. Alex shrugged.

'It's what I believe. I don't care what Alan Blunt says, I don't think he would have wanted me to become a spy this early. Maybe he would have given me the choice later but not now,' he answered. Kita looked away.

'I don't know if I can believe that,' she said; Alex sighed.

'I'm sorry' he said, Kita turned to face him.

'Why? Because you told me the truth? Never be sorry for telling someone the truth no matter how much it hurts,' she told him, after a few moments pause she asked him 'Do you know how he died?'

Alex looked back at the wall.

'You do, don't you?' Kita asked in a quiet voice. There was a few moments of silence to answer her question before she spoke again, it was obvious she was trying to keep her voice steady.

'Please, Alex, I need to know,' she asked, Alex remained silent. 'Alex, after Dad drowned he became a father figure to me; he was the only one who could keep Mum out of her own little world. She just sits there staring into space all day and I'm the one how had to take care of her, even when she lashes out in one of her temper fits.'

Alex turned to face her; Kita had always described a Yassen Gregorovich he never thought existed. Tears were silently falling down her face, Alex sighed.

'Scorpia sent him to help Damian Cray. I was working without the help of MI6 at the time to track Cray down; he'd put my friend's Dad, Sabina's Dad, in hospital. Me and Sabina were on Air Force One with Cray and Yassen. Cray ordered Yassen to kill us but he refused to do it, so Cray shot him. In the end Cray, Sabina, and I fought and Cray fell out of the door and into an engine. I managed to speak to Yassen before he died and he said he used to work with me Dad at Scorpia; he told me to find Scorpia in Venice.

In the end it turned out my Dad was a double agent working for MI6; Scorpia found out and killed both of my parents because of it. I lived with my Uncle before he was killed by Yassen on his last mission; that was the one they made me take over as my first mission.

'Yassen saved me twice; first when he killed Herod Sayle, who was about to shoot me, and then when I faced Cray. He gave me a fair chance, which is more than most people do.'

Kita remained silent as she continued to cry; she looked down at the bed cover and started to speak again

'He taught me all the languages I know. When he visited us we used to speak in a mixture of languages all the time, it was a game for us. When he wrote to me we'd alternate between the languages I knew and those I was learning. Him and Mum would pick me up from my grandparents' house and take me out for the day; sometimes it was just me and him. He even paid for my gymnastics classes and kit.

'they said no body was ever found but that he was missing, presumed dead. After a few weeks of not having heard from him they held a memorial service for him in Russia; we couldn't afford to go out there and that's when my grandparents died and Mum hit rock bottom. Sometimes I hear her calling out to him in her sleep, and she keeps asking me where he is; he was her 2nd cousin and they were really close, almost like brother and sister. He was a father, brother and friend all in one to us. I kept asking him to take me to live with him, but all he'd say was "We'll see" or "Maybe one day when you've learnt Russian". He told me he worked for a shipping form and he had to travel a lot to secure deals.'

Kita trailed off, her voice cracking with the effort to keep it steady. Alex sat up and pulled her into a hug, letting her cry into his shoulder. After a few moments Jack's voice carried up the stairs telling them lunch was ready; Kita pulled away from Alex.

'Be down in a minute!' Alex called to her, he turned back to Kita, 'You ok?'

Kita shook her head, 'No, but I will be soon enough. Thanks for telling me, Alex.'

'Come on then, you and Jack can take the piss out of me for the next half an hour while we have lunch,' he said; Kita smiled at him.

'Thanks, Alex,' she said. The two of them turned and walked downstairs to join Jack for lunch.

'You said you do gymnastics, how long have you been doing it for?' Alex asked as they reached the kitchen.

'Since I was five,' Kita answered, 'I was supposed to be doing a competition this weekend, but Blunt put pay to that.'

Alex nodded sympathetically, 'He does choose the worst times, trust me.'

& & & & & & & & &

Two days later the two teenagers were sat side by side on a private plane that would carry them to the school; Alex felt his stomach clench unpleasantly as the French Alps appeared, he looked out and had a horrible shock when he saw the building that had once been known as the Point Blanc Academy. He breathed a sigh of relief when the plane veered to the side and continued through the Alps. Kita was listening to the I-pod Smithers had given her, they'd each loaded music onto them as Smithers had instructed them and had enough music to listen to constantly for four days. As they were now playing the parts of Alex Moth and Nikita Long, Kita was ignoring him; they were supposed to hate each other, it would mean there would be a lot of opportunities to slip up seeing as they were quite good friends but it was the safest means of putting them in. The money to pay for their stay at the school was coming from a 'generous associate' according to Alan Blunt and neither teenager had pressed him for more details. Alex was dressed in a pair of baggy jeans that had many rips and tears in the legs and, much to his delight, he had been allowed to wear his Chelsea football shirt; Kita was wearing a short black, leather skirt that came midway down her thighs and a pair of heeled boots that came up to the top of her calves, with a low-cut black top, to complete her black look she was wearing dark makeup; Alex had a suspicion that the Headmaster would have a shock when he saw her, especially since they had all of their 'gadget' body rings in. He smirked to himself as he thought of all the damage they could do between them if they set off all of the rings at once and felt a bit more secure. The plane landed on an air strip not far from a large, old fashioned building not unlike the building that had housed the Point Blanc Academy; the only difference was that this building didn't look like it had been designed by a madman, though he had a feeling that the Headmaster would just as crazy as his brother had been.

The plane landed and Kita put her I-pod away in her bag and they stood up to leave; there were two other teenagers on the plane, another girl and a boy who looked a little older than them and were obviously there for the reason that the school said it was there for. The four teenagers stepped out of the warm plane and into the slowly drifting snowflakes of the French Alps.

_A/N: I'm so sorry that it's taken so long for me to update but I've had so much work and revision to do. It's levelling out now, though, so hopefully I can update more. I'm taking my laptop into school so I'm writing chapters in my free periods after I've done most of my work or I just get so bored with doing work I start writing… I blame my muses. Thank you so much to my readers and reviewers! I know I've said this story is on hold but there will be the odd update until the 'ON HOLD' comes down._

_Please review, I'm writing chapters according to the stories with the most reviews it's just I hadn't updated this one in ages and I thought I'd better seeing as it's now on hold._

_Starsword _


	7. Arrival

**Chapter 7 – Arrival**

Nikita shivered as they stepped out into the snow, an icy wind was blasting them from the front; a car was parked about 100 metres away from them, a tall, thin man was standing beside it. The group made their way towards the car, arms wrapped around their bodies to try and keep in a little warmth.

'Bloody long way to go to get to the car,' the boy from the plane muttered; the girl next to him rolled her eyes.

'You know, if you weren't such a bloody whiner maybe I could just ignore you in peace,' she snapped.

'Oh piss off, Mel,' the boy retorted.

'Only if you jump off the mountain,' she replied; the boy opened his mouth to reply but they reached the car before he could say anything.

'Greetings, and welcome to Mont Blanc Academy, we hope you enjoy your stay here. I am to take you to the Headmaster, Mr Hope,' the driver said, opening the door to the back seats of the car and bowing to the teenagers. Alex glanced at Kita and saw her raise an eyebrow and walk towards the door; the other girl, Mel, followed her with a last glare at the other boy.

'So what you in here for?' the boy asked Alex as they climbed in after the girls.

'Same reason you are, I expect,' he replied, happy to hear another English boy at the academy. The boy rolled his eyes.

'I swear that girl is the devil,' he said, Alex smirked.

'Join the club,' he replied, risking a glance at Kita who had started talking with Mel in the seats behind them. The boy followed his glance.

'The two devils are plotting, I can tell,' he said, he grinned at Alex, 'I've grown used to being able to tell when she's talking about me,' he told Alex, 'It means I can evade whatever crack pot plan she thought up to get rid of me. Unfortunately our parents don't agree with our views. James.'

'Alex,' Alex took the offered hand and leant back in the seats, still not able to fully relax with the shadow of the Point Blanc Academy only a few miles away.

& & & & & & & &

The car stopped outside the huge building Alex had seen from the plane, the sun was starting to set over the Alps and the Point Blanc Academy was just visible as a dark silhouette to anyone who knew where it was. The driver got out and opened the door, allowing Alex and James to get out first leaving the two girls to climb out after them. The car door was closed and the driver led them up the stairs and into the building; as Alex glanced back he saw people at the car that had pulled up behind them taking out the trunks and starting to carry them into the Academy, presumably to different rooms. They were led along elegantly dressed corridors and up majestic staircases until they reached a mahogany door, a gold plate was nailed to it that read "Mr Hope, Headmaster". The driver knocked on the door once and then waited, after a few moments of silence a voice called from inside the room and the door was opened to allow the teenagers into the study. Alex heard an almost inaudible gasp from Nikita as they stepped into the room; the carpet was a deep red, with dark wood panelling along the walls. A mahogany desk sat in front of a set of very large windows which let in a lot of the early evening light; lights positioned around the walls gave off a soft glow, giving the room and eerie appearance, bookshelves lined the walls and ornaments sat in front of many books. At the desk sat a large man with a head of black hair and a very large black moustache. He gazed over the rim of his dark glasses at the four teenagers, his fingers laced together as his elbows rested on the desk in front of him. Alex was truck by the similarities and differences between him and his half brother, and felt a rush of dread rush through him as the man's eyes lingered on him.

'Welcome to the Mont Blanc Academy, I am Mr. Hope your Headmaster. Whilst you are here you will continue your studies, should you wish it, in the classrooms provided; there are topics for you to study on the computers and, should you not understand anything, there will always be a teacher in the next room ready to answer your questions. The computers also have access to the Internet so feel free to use them for that purpose as well,' he spoke as if he had rehearsed and said this speech countless times. 'While you are here you will abide by the few rules we have. One is that you do not enter the basement or the restricted areas on various floors; these are off limits as they are in need of repair and are also used as storage rooms, they are also used by the servants as their rooms and I'm sure you can respect their privacy enough to leave them in peace. You will not leave the grounds of the Academy, I'm sure the fences will tell you where the boundaries are, and you will all be in bed by 11pm at the latest. Any questions?'

None of them spoke up; Mel gave a huge yawn that she didn't bother to try and conceal and Kita smirked when she caught the other girl's eye.

'In which case, Mr Peters will show you to your rooms. Feel free to mingle with the other students here; including you four there are now ten of you. Good bye.'

With that the four teenagers were led back out of the study by the driver and back along the various corridors of the school. The group was silent as they made their way through the large building, Alex and James walked side by side, Mel and Kita followed behind them. Finally they reached a corridor with doors leading off it at regular intervals down both sides of the corridor. Peters stopped at one of the doors, took out a set of keys and unlocked it; he opened and turned to the four teenagers behind him.

'Miss Smith and Mr Harper, this is your room,' he said; Mel sighed.

'See you later, Kita,' she paused then added, 'Maybe sooner rather than later depending on how soon the prick drives me nuts.'

James rolled his eyes and mouthed the word 'devil' at Alex; Alex grinned at him before the door was closed on the other two.

'Do we get keys to the rooms?' Alex asked as they walked to the next door along. Peters shook his head.

'The rooms are locked until someone comes to stay in them. Then they stay open,' he replied, unlocking the door to their room, 'Miss Long, Mr Moth, this is your room.'

Kita walked past him into the room and Alex followed once she'd walked in. The door closed behind them and the sound of footsteps slowly faded. Kita turned to face Alex.

'So what do we-'

Alex clamped a hand over her mouth and pressed a finger to his lips; taking out his I-pod he went into the screen option menu and selected 'black and white'. Immediately a plan of the room came up; Alex frowned.

'It's clear. No bugs,' he said; Kita raised her eyebrows.

'Isn't that a good thing?' she asked; Alex shrugged.

'In a way it is, in a way it isn't. If it was like the Point Blanc Academy they'd be watching our every move-'

'But it doesn't _feel_ like anyone's watching us,' Kita finished; Alex nodded.

'Exactly. Plus there's no other bugs in here to listen to us. So if he _isn't_ following in his brother's footsteps then what _is_ he doing?' he wondered aloud. The two friends were silent for a few moments.

'Well I'm going to unpack, any idea when and where dinner is?' she asked; Alex smirked.

'They did fail to mention that didn't they?'

Kita rolled her eyes and nodded; turning to her suitcase she started to unpack her things into one of the wardrobes provided. Obviously the Headmaster wasn't taking any chances as regards arguments over wardrobe space as they had a wardrobe and chest of drawers each. The sounds of raised voices from next door made Kita giggle.

'Something tells me Mel's gotten annoyed with James already,' she said; Alex tried to keep a straight face as they heard the door slam and footsteps coming towards them. Someone pounded on the door and Kita went over to open it; a fuming Mel was standing in the doorway.

'I swear I'm going to _kill_ that boy if he comes near me again!' she screamed, walking into the room.

'Alex get out,' she said to him; Alex opened his mouth to argue.

'Hey this is my room too!' he said; Kita glared at him.

'So go see James. We,' she pointed at herself and Mel, 'Need girly chat time. Now get out.'

'Make me,' he said, crossing his arms and sitting on the bed. Kita threw her hands up in frustration; there was another knock at the door.

'If it's that absolute _retard_ tell him to go away,' Mel said as Kita walked to open the door again. Sure enough James was stood in the doorway.

'I thought you'd need rescuing,' he said to Alex, Alex grinned and walked over to him.

'Oh _now_ you leave,' Kita said, slamming the door behind the two boys. James raised his eyebrows at Alex.

'She looks like a handful,' he commented, Alex laughed.

'You have no idea,' he told him as he followed James back to he other boy's room.

Inside the room Mel was ranting at Kita about what James had done as Kita finished unpacking her things.

'So when I went to put my stuff in the bathroom there was no space left, so I _asked_ him to move some of his stuff and he just flat out refused! I mean I need to put my make up _somewhere_, so why can't he move some of his stuff to make room for mine?' she demanded as Kita finally closed the wardrobe door.

'Well that's boys for you,' Kita said as she sat down on the double bed.

'I can't believe we have to _share_ a bed!' Mel yelled, lying back on the bed, obviously her ranting had finished because she seemed to visually calm down.

'Now that's off my chest, how's Alex been? Anything as bad as James or not really?' Mel asked her; Kita grinned.

'We've ignored each other so far. As per usual,' Kita said; Mel sighed.

'Lucky. James whines too much for me to ignore him in peace,' she said; Kita laughed.

'Well we _are_ on the third floor. If it gets too bad just push him out of the window into the piles of snow below and watch him make his way back round to the front door. Then block the door to your room so he can't get in,' she suggested, Mel's eyes lit up.

'You know that sounds _very_ promising,' she said; Kita laughed as the door to the room opened and James and Alex came back in.

'Would it kill you to _knock_?' Kita demanded; Alex just ignored her as he sat on the couch, James closed the door and then joined him. The two sets of teenagers glared at each other for a few tense moments.

'Did you come here for a reason, or was it just to annoy us?' Mel demanded; James sighed.

'See? I _told_ you she's the devil incarnate,' he told Alex, putting his arms up in frustration. 'When will you _leave_ me alone, you bloody demon?'

Mel sat up and gave him a death glare, if looks could kill James would be dead and buried. 'When you decide to get out of my _life_,' she retorted, 'You know I had a nice boyfriend before _you_ came into our lives and then our parents decided we should marry. _Big deal!_ I just wanted to carry on with my happy life, but _no!_ You have to come along and spoil it!'

'You think I _want_ to marry a bitch queen like you?' James demanded. Mel screamed in anger and stormed out of the room.

'I'll talk to you later Kita, I just can't _stand_ being in the same room as him at the moment,' she said, slamming the door behind her. James groaned.

'Great, something tells me I'm not going to get any peace if I stay in the same building as her until she's calmed down. That bloody temper of her's drives me round the bend. I'm going outside for a walk. See you guys at dinner I guess, when _is_ dinner?' he asked; Alex shrugged.

'I guess they'll tell us,' he suggested, James nodded and waved a quick goodbye before walking out of the room and leaving the two of them alone. When their eyes met Kita burst out laughing.

'I know I shouldn't laugh but the arguments those two have are just so funny,' she said; Alex smiled and nodded.

'They should be interesting to sleep next to. Wonder how late they'll be up arguing till?'

'11pm if Mel's temper is anything to go by,' Kita answered.

'That brings up another problem,' Alex said, pointing to the bed, 'We only have one double bed.'

Kita raised her eyebrows, 'Really? After Mel's rant I wouldn't have guessed.'

Alex snorted, 'Yes well, normally I would say one of us, meaning me, would sleep on the couch but as that's not really who I'm playing-'

'We both get the bed,' Kita finished, nodding. 'Makes sense.'

The sounds of arguments from outside drew Alex to the window.

'Looks like our new friends found each other,' he said; Kita laughed.

'Let's just hope they don't push each other off the mountain,' she said, lying back on the bed and stretching.

'Well it might solve a few of their problems. Wonder if they can have enough arguments to solve anything?' Alex wondered aloud.

'From what I can tell those two could argue about the colour of the sky,' Kita replied, Alex laughed.

'Now _that's_ something I would like to see,' he said.

'I wouldn't… there'd be fists flying by the end of it. I think Mel almost threw a vase at James before she came in here.'

'And I thought you could be dangerous,' Alex said.

'_I _can be dangerous?' Kita asked, looking over at him as he stood by the window.

'The way you took out Michael Cook and his two mates? Yeah I'd say you can be pretty dangerous,' he replied; Kita sat up.

'They seemed pretty spooked by you, Alex, why is that?' she asked him; Alex turned to look out of the window again.

'They picked on Tom a while ago, I gave them a lesson behind the bike shed,' he answered shortly; Kita raised an eyebrow.

'You didn't get _caught_?'

'They didn't tell a teacher,' he replied. A short silence followed; then a gong rang through the building and a voice appeared over a PA system.

'Dinner will be served in the dining hall, located on the ground floor off the lobby.'

Alex raised his eyebrows at Kita.

'Guess that's our cue,' he said, Kita smiled and they walked out of the room; the air around them turned colder as they took on their appointed roles.

_A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to update. My computers got a virus at the moment and it's making it difficult to go online, so it might take a bit more time than normal getting updates up. Hope you enjoy this chapter and a big thank you to all my reviewers! Another thank you goes to my readers, you're all wonderful and I love you all! Keep your eyes open for a few more updates to appear._

_Ciao for now,_

_Starsword_


	8. Dinner

**Chapter 8 – Dinner**

Alex and Kita reached the dining room just as Mel and James walked through the front doors; for once they were silent as they glared at each other, the tension palpable between them. As they entered the dining room they were greeted with the sight of a long table, name cards were placed around one end of it, the Headmaster was sat at the head of the table. Five other teenagers, all around their age, sat near him; two had already started throwing food at one another.

'You will sit in your appropriate seats,' Mr Hope told them, he gestured to four seats around them. The four teenagers complied silently. Until they realised where their seats were.

'I am NOT sitting next to _him_!' Mel screamed, pointing at James; for once it seemed as if they were going to agree on something.

'Ditto,' Kita said, glaring at Alex; Alex just rolled his eyes at James and the two boys shared a smirk. The Headmaster watched the four of them with an expressionless face.

'You will sit where you have been told' he said firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument; Alex shivered internally at the voice, it reminded him so much of the man that had wanted to have him dissected.

'What if we refuse to?' Alex demanded, crossing his arms across his chest, 'Why should we be dictated to by you?'

As soon as he'd said it he knew he'd gone too far; the Headmaster stood up and suddenly the room went quiet. Not for the first time Alex thought that the man knew _exactly_ who he was; there was an emotion in his eyes that made Alex want to back out of the room and leave the Academy. Alex _hated_ feeling so scared he wanted to run away. Suddenly he had the feeling that he couldn't breathe, that the room had suddenly doubled in temperature and the air was stale.

'You will sit down in the places provided for you, _Alex_, and you will sit in them very meal time. If you do not you can return to your room and go without,' he replied, 'Now sit down all of you.'

Alex held Hope's gaze for a few seconds before shrugging and sitting in his designated place, the other three copying him silently.

'Now, let us start,' Mr Hope said, his voice once again pleasant; Alex let out a silent breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. Dinner passed fairly quietly until Mr Hope stood up and took his leave half way through the meal.

'I will leave you to your own devices, now,' he told them, 'Now you can be yourselves without anyone watching over you all the time.'

Alex felt a shiver run down his spine at the cruel reminder of the other Academy only a few miles away. He finally let himself relax slightly once the man was out of the room and the door has snapped shut behind him. The room seemed to explode with noise as soon as the door had been shut.

'What the hell is up with that freak?' Mel demanded, 'I actually thought he was going to attack Alex.'

'I wish he had,' Kita muttered, intentionally loud enough for him to hear. Alex replied by glaring at her.

'Seriously though, mate, watch yourself,' James said, 'I don't care what the girls think but I need you to keep me sane in this place.'

Alex grinned at him, 'I'll only get myself into trouble if I know I can get out of it,' he replied. James, and two of the other boys, laughed at that. Kita just rolled her eyes.

'Grow up, Alex,' she snapped, 'The only trouble you get into is the type you _can't_ get out of. You're not a superhero, so stop acting like one.'

Alex raised an eyebrow, 'Who asked you to comment?' he asked.

'I thought this was a conversation for everyone on the table. Obviously we're not including idiots like you in it anymore,' Kita retorted.

'I guess I forgot to mention that we're not including flirts who'll lift up their skirts for anyone who asks for a good look?'

Kita glared at him and, it seemed to Alex, that it wasn't just Nikita Long that was glaring at him.

'You know bugger all about me so keep your mouth shut, Alex,' Kita snapped; she turned away from him and started a conversation with one of the other boys at the table. He caught James' eye and the two exchanged raised eyebrows; he saw Mel glaring at him, and then spotted James' eye roll as he noticed the glare as well. The talk died down a little as the dessert was brought in and they ate the various desserts laid out in the middle of the table for them. When the chatter started up again Alex kept an ear open on Kita's conversation as he listened to Mel and James arguing yet again. Kita was talking to one of the other boys who, it was plain to see, was there for the reason that Alex had gone to Point Blanc for.

'What you here for then, beautiful?' the boy asked; Kita smiled flirtatiously at him.

'Nothing I could change if I had the chance,' she replied; the boy grinned.

'What's your name?' he asked her.

'Kita'

'Simon,' he said; reaching across to take her hand, placing a kiss on it. Kita smiled brilliantly at him.

'So… you single or you here for a marriage arrangement?' Simon asked; Kita sighed.

'Unfortunately I'm here for the latter,' she replied. Simon smiled.

'Any chance of running off with a devishly handsome boy that decides to rescue you from your room?'

Kita laughed, 'I think I'd run off with anyone given the chance,' she replied. Alex kicked her discreetly under the table.

'Unfortunately, however, there is nowhere to run to out here,' she said; kicking him back using the heel of her shoe and causing Alex to try not to grimace with pain. At that moment a loud bell rang through the school and the same voice came over the PA system.

'Please leave the dining room and return to your rooms,' it instructed. Sighing the group of teenagers stood up and started to trek back to their rooms. At the junction of the corridors though, the rest of them, including another pair who were here for an arranged marriage, set off down the other corridor.

'Aren't your rooms this way?' Kita asked Simon; he shook his head.

'We all started off down there and then we moved into the rooms we have now,' he replied; Alex frowned slightly, why move rooms? The two groups separated and, once outside their corresponding rooms, the two pairs of teenagers opened their corresponding doors.

& & & & & & & & & & &

Once inside Alex leant against the door as Kita went over to the bed and sat down, taking off her shoes and taking a pair of tracksuit trousers and a sleeveless stop into the bathroom without saying a word to Alex. He frowned as the door closed, she hadn't thought he meant anything he said down in the dining room had she? Sighing to himself he lay down on the bed and stared at the canopy above him. His mind drifted, unbidden, to his first assignment when he had found a piece of paper written by Ian Rider above his bed and it had led him to discover what Herod Sayle had really been doing in Cornwall. He was drawn out of his thoughts by Kita coming out of the bathroom, now changed. He stayed silent as she started to stretch and then started to do her gymnastic routine. They stayed silent for about five minutes, Kita doing her routine, the moves slowly getting more demanding, and Alex just watching her from the bed. Eventually Alex spoke.

'You know I didn't mean any of the stuff I said down there, don't you?'

Kita was currently in a hand stand, she placed her balance onto one arm and lifted the other up. 'I know,' she replied. Alex raised his eyebrows as she came out of the handstand and stood up; he got off the bed and took hold of her arms and turned her to face him.

'What's wrong?' he asked her; she pulled away from him, Alex let his arms fall to his sides.

'Nothing's wrong, I'm fine,' she snapped; Alex shrugged.

'Whatever you say,' he said. He watched as Kita tensed up.

'Alex, I'm fine just leave me alone,' she told him; putting her arms up and doing a handspring. Her feet went out from under her as she landed; Alex leapt forward and caught her by her shoulder's before she hit the floor.

'Somehow I don't think you are,' he said as she looked up at him, 'Because I've seen you do a few of them already and you made them look as easy as a forward roll; so that means something's got you worked up.'

Kita sighed as he helped her stand; 'It's nothing I want to talk about.'

Alex sighed, 'Was it something I said at dinner?'

Kita didn't turn to look at him as she walked back into the bathroom. 'I said I don't want to talk about it, Alex.'

Alex scowled, 'Fine, I was just trying to help. Next time I won't bother.'

Kita turned to face him, frowning. 'What's wrong with you? One minute you're really calm and collected and the next you're stressing out about something or acting like a prick.'

'It's nothing I want to talk about,' Alex replied, mimicking her words from a few minutes ago. Kita sighed.

'That's just being childish, Alex,' she told him.

'It's something that I don't talk to _anyone_ about' Alex replied, walking to stand over by the window to look out over the Alps. Over to where he knew the looming ruins of the Point Blanc Academy stood; an ominous reminder of his second mission. That mission had very nearly cost him his life.

'Is it about one of your missions?' Kita asked him; Alex stayed silent.

'I know about the Point Blanc Academy,' she said; Alex turned to look at her and Kita took an involuntary step back at the cold stare he gave her. It was as if the Alex she had come to know had disappeared into a cold shell.

'No you don't,' he told her, his tone was cold and Kita was surprised it was Alex standing in front of her. He turned and continued to stare out of the window.

'I know you had to escape from the Academy on a snowboard down an expert black ski slope and almost got killed by a train on the way down. I also know you were sent back in even though you didn't want to go back,' she said; Alex snorted.

'That all they told you?' he asked her, ''Cos they told you _nothing_.'

'Then _tell_ me,' she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. Alex spun around and caught her wrist with his hand, spinning them around so he was pinning her against the wall.

'That is a part of my life I _never_ want to remember. It's a part of my life I never wanted to _happen_. So I'm sorry if I want to keep it hidden from the rest of the world,' he said quietly, his voice was so cold it made Kita shiver.

'Alex let go,' she said, tears starting to well in her eyes; startled Alex let go and Kita pushed past him and put a few steps between them before turning and facing him again, rubbing her wrist where he'd held it.

'Kita, what-?'

'Look let's just leave this conversation as it is,' Kita said. Alex frowned, there'd been something in her eyes when he'd pinned her that he couldn't quite place and he had a nagging feeling that it was something that would mean a breakthrough in their stalemate of secrets.

'We better get changed,' Kita said, walking over to the bed and indicating the clock, 'It's half ten already. Dinner went on for longer than we realised.'

She grabbed her pyjamas without waiting for Alex's answer and walked back into the bathroom to get changed again. Alex sighed to himself and collected his pyjama bottoms from his suitcase and got changed while he waited for Kita to come back out; all the time going over their argument in his mind to see if he could make sense of what had happened. He had no idea why he'd become that cold towards her, he hardly ever acted like that but the Academy had really got him spooked; it was so alike, and yet so unlike, the Point Blanc Academy that it was unnerving and it was making him tense and uneasy, keeping him on the edge all the time and they hadn't even been here 24 hours.

_A/N: So what do you think? Like it? Hate it? Please R&R and give me some feedback so I know what you're thinking. I'm getting stressed with work and revision at the moment so if it takes me a while to update I'm really sorry. The muses seem to have attacked me with ideas for this fic and have even started on ideas for sequels! I haven't even got this whole fic planned out and already my mind is being attacked with ideas that are semi unrelated to the fic. Help!!_

_Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers, if you want anything specific to happen do tell and I'll see if I can fit it in. Even if it's just little things between characters, or you feel the characters could be behaving differently. Anything you can think of I want to know! Lol. Thank you also to my readers I do love you all, even if I don't shout it as loud as I do about my reviewers._

_Thanks again to everyone, please R&R it might take away some of my stress and make me write a bit more._

_Ciao for now_

_Starsword_


	9. Coming Clean?

**Chapter 9 – Coming Clean?**

Kita came back out of the bathroom not long after Alex had finished getting changed and had lay down on the bed, staring up the canopy as he thought; he look up as she came over and watched her, lost in thought.

'What?' Kita asked as she tied her hair into a lose bun. Alex shook himself out of his thoughts.

'Nothing,' he replied. Kita rolled her eyes.

'That's becoming a catch phrase with us,' she muttered; Alex rolled his eyes.

'I was thinking,' he told her; Kita took off the jumper she'd worn over the top of her strappy pyjama top to keep out the slight chill in the room, and shivered slightly as she sat on the bed.

'Aren't you cold?' she asked him, indicating the pyjama bottoms he was wearing and his bare chest. Alex shook his head.

'Cold doesn't bother me that much,' he replied.

'Doesn't usually bother me either,' Kita replied, 'But this is colder than normal, even for the Alps.'

'You've been here before?' Alex asked; Kita nodded.

'Once. With Mum and Yassen,' she answered; and awkward silence ensued. Eventually Alex sat up and placed a hand on her shoulder, frowning slightly when she flinched at the contact.

'It'll get easier,' he told her; he heard her laugh softly.

'Yeah, I know,' she replied, 'Life goes on and death is easier to accept. I've heard it from my grandparents.'

'Look I'm just trying to help,' Alex said, standing up and crossing to the spot by the window he'd been occupying quite a lot since they arrived.

'That's what you said earlier,' she replied. Alex turned to face her.

'What is wrong with you today?' he demanded, 'You throw all the help I offer back in my face and then have a go at me.'

'I'm sorry I'm just…' Kita sighed, 'Can we just go to sleep and talk about this in the morning?'

Alex shrugged, 'Fine, whatever.'

As he went back to his side of the bed he watched her out of the corner of his eye. Something was bothering him and he couldn't quite place it. As he got under the covers on his side of the bed, he noticed Kita tense up again and suddenly something clicked in his brain. Alex sat up and flipped Kita from her side so she was on her back.

'Why are you afraid of me?' he asked her; Kita's eyes went wide.

'Let me go-'

'Answer the question, Kita,' Alex told her, 'Why are you scared of me?'

'I'm not scared of you, Alex,' Kita replied, she turned her face to the side. Alex frowned.

'Then what _are_ you scared of?' he asked her. When she remained silent he sighed and let go of her, lying back down on his side with his back to her.

'Okay, when you think you can tell-'

'I'm scared of what's happened and what could happen,' she replied, voice soft. Alex turned to look at her, she hadn't moved since he'd let her go.

'What do you mean?' he asked her. Kita turned onto her side.

'It doesn't matter,' she said; Alex scowled and opened his mouth to say something.

'It doesn't matter for now,' Kita said, lying on her back once more, 'When I'm ready I'll tell you.'

Alex closed his mouth again and nodded; obviously it was something in her past that was troubling her, and until she accepted it she wouldn't be able to tell him what had happened. They lay on their backs, side by side, in a comfortable silence for a few moments.

'I'm scared too,' he said; Kita turned to look at him but Alex kept his gaze fixed on the canopy above him.

'Why?' she asked.

'Because of what happened, and what almost happened, in the Point Blanc Academy,' he replied; after a short pause he continued.

'It felt like you were being watched 24/7, well you were, but the feeling was still one I'll never forget. Then I saw the one friend I'd made there be taken from his room in the middle of the night, the next morning he was there but at the same time it _wasn't_ him. When I finally worked out what had happened and talked to the boys who had been captured they caught me; they had microphones in the cells and heard every word I said and ended up catching me and taking me to the Headmaster. When I came round after being knocked out Dr Grief explained to me all about the Gemini project; how he'd cloned himself and was replacing 14 year old boys from around the world with 14 year old clones of himself, surgically made to look like the boy they represented. When he'd finished gloating he told me what he was going to do with me, how he was going to use me as an example as to why the boys shouldn't escape.'

Alex paused for a moment. 'He was going to have me dissected in front of the clones that still remained at the Academy; except there was going to be no anaesthetic and they were going to see how long my heart could last for while it was being dissected before it gave out.'

He felt Kita take his hand and squeezed hers before taking a breath and carried on.

'I was lucky that Smithers had given me an earring that could blast open the lock of my cell and I was able to escape. I transformed an ironing board into a makeshift snowboard and took off down the side of the mountain to get out of there. I'd called MI6 for help two days before and they hadn't yet answered. In the end it was the bullet proof ski suit and a lot of luck that saved me; that and the train that came through right as I reached the snipers at the bottom of the mountain. I managed to get the board onto the train and it carried me away.'

'You did what?' Kita asked; Alex carried on with his story.

'The train turned a corner and the only thing that caught me was the barbed wire fence and a lot of undergrowth. MI6 faked my death and then manipulated me into returning to the Academy to help them capture Grief and get the boys out,' he finished.

'What happened? To Grief?' Kita asked.

'He was trying to escape in a helicopter. The only way I could think of to stop him was to drive a snowmobile off of the ski jump and into the helicopter,' Alex replied.

'He's dead,' Kita said; it wasn't a question, just a statement. Alex nodded in reply.

'How are you still alive?' Kita asked him, turning onto her side to face him. Alex shrugged.

'Just got lucky I guess,' he replied. Kita shifted closer to him and placed an arm across his chest, pulling him closer into a one armed hug and resting her head on his shoulder.

'I'm glad you did,' she said; Alex wrapped his arm around her, feeling slightly awkward. He'd never really been this close to a girl before; most of the people at school avoided him, thinking he was in and out of prison all the time or that he did drugs.

'What happened to you, Kita?' he asked; she tensed slightly against him, but Alex held her firmly where she was. They both knew what he was referring to.

'I had to train with the SAS,' she replied, 'Like you did. Except women don't usually train with the SAS so the only bed free was with three men.'

Alex could guess the rest and pulled her closer against him.

'Kita-'

'Don't, Alex,' she said, he could hear the tears in her voice.

'Why didn't you report it?' he asked; Kita laughed sourly.

'It would have made it worse,' she replied shortly, before the tears finally broke free and started to fall down her cheeks. Alex wrapped both arms around her and held her as she cried silently; inside he cursed MI6. They couldn't stop at ruining his life, they had to ruin hers as well; but Alex knew that Alan Blunt didn't really care about what happened to his agents. Tulip Jones, on the other hand, cared to some degree, but in their positions it wasn't advisable to get too attached to your employees.

& & & & & & & &

Alex woke the next morning to find that neither of them had moved during the night and Kita's head was still resting on his shoulder; Alex still felt slightly awkward as he watched the girl sleeping next to him. He'd never really been with any girls in his life, the two girls he'd been closest to were Jack and Sabina, and MI6 had all but stamped out the possibility of having a proper relationship with anyone, including his friends. When Alex had first been told he'd be getting a partner for this mission he'd been angry, thinking the partner would have either relied on him the whole time or thought they were better than Alex; either way he'd imagined this being the most difficult and frustrating mission of the lot. He'd been surprised to realise that Kita would actually be a help rather than a hindrance, he knew she could look after herself, she'd proven that with Michael Cook, and, somehow, they'd become good friends in just a few days. Alex's thoughts turned to the mission at hand and the precious little they knew. So far they knew it was almost the same as the Point Blanc Academy Alex had investigated a few months ago, run by Hugo Grief's half brother, Daniel Hope, so far there had been nothing to prove that Hope was doing what his half brother had been doing by replacing people with clones; Alex had to admit it sounded a bit far-fetched to think that the two brothers could have done exactly the same thing but they couldn't rule it out as a possibility. The only thing they had to go on was that they would, eventually, be moved to different rooms; this was the only lead they had to go on at the moment. The thing that was really annoying Alex was the question where had the building come from? He couldn't remember having seen it when he was at the Point Blanc academy, nor any mention of it, so where had it come from, and if it had been here then why hadn't MI6 told him about it last time? He was drawn from his thoughts as Kita stirred next to him, she yawned and looked up at him, blinking away the sleep from her eyes. Alex grinned.

'Now I know why you girls need your beauty sleep,' he said; Kita slapped him on the shoulder and rolled over, pulling the covers over her head.

'Bugger off,' she muttered; Alex yanked the covers back and climbed out of bed,

'Come on, we've got work to do. The sooner we do it, the sooner we get out of here,' he said, looking out over the beautiful scenery of the Alps with a knot of dread in his stomach.

_A/N: Well here it is another chapter. I've got my exams coming up so this will probably be the last update until the exams are over. Blame the government, if I had my way exams would be illegal! _

_Thank you to everyone who reviewed, reviews really do make my day and cheer me up when I've got the shadow of revision hanging over my head, poking me with pointy sticks and hissing menacingly in my ear about Es and Us. Really not nice…_

_Please R&R it'll make me happy and maybe help me to find a spare few minutes to update again._

_Thank you to all my wonderful readers and thanks again to everyone who reviewed._

_Ciao for now,_

_Starsword_


	10. Getting Started

**Chapter 10 – Getting Started**

'So where do we start?' Kita asked once they were both dressed, she lay back on the bed propped up against the pillows; Alex slouched in one of the chairs thinking.

'More like what do we know,' he replied, 'Once we go through what we know we'll know where to start.'

'Do we know anything?' she asked.

'We know that the Headmaster's half brother was the mastermind behind the Gemini project at Point Blanc; we also know that he's set up a school similar to his brother's and the success rate is almost as high.'

'We also know most of the boys in this place are womanising pigs,' Kita muttered, Alex snorted.

'Well you did encourage him,' he said; Kita scowled.

'We also know that anyone who stays here is moved to a different room at some point during their stay,' he continued.

'So what, we get a look inside these rooms and see if there are any bugs there?' Kita asked.

'Not us, you,' Alex replied; Kita raised her eyebrows.

'What?'

'Simon seemed interested in you, yes? So it'll be easier for you to get into one of those rooms than it will be for me. At the moment the only people I'm moderately friendly with are James and Mel, and don't forget Mel doesn't exactly like me,' Alex explained.

'So while I'm trying not to get seduced by the asshole what are you going to do?' Kita asked; Alex thought for a few moments.

'Take a look around and find out where all of these off limits places are,' he answered, 'I also want to see if there's a fireplace anywhere that we could climb up; that's how I found out about the Gemini project, when I climbed up a fireplace to the next floor up.'

'Alright then Columbus, you go make maps and I'll see what I find in Simon's room; but next time we have to get anywhere _you're_ the one who gets seduced,' Kita said; Alex grinned.

'Sorry Kita, but I only go for girls, I can't really go after the guys can I?' Kita rolled her eyes and put on a pair of shoes as she pulled down her top; taking on the role of Nikita Long.

'See you later,' she said, walking out of the door and closing it behind her. Alex stood up and stretched; he collected his Ipod and waited a few minutes before walking out the door and starting his wander around the school.

& & & & & & &

Kita knocked on the door and waited for a reply, she groaned inwardly as the door opened and Simon stood inside, a grin on his face.

'Hey, sweetheart, what brings you here?' he asked; Kita put on the best exasperated look she could muster.

'Alex was driving me mad, would you mind if I came in for a bit? I just want to get away from him,' she replied; Simon's grin, if possible, increased and he nodded.

'Come on in,' he replied, opening the door wider and standing to one side so she could come in.

'Thanks,' Kita said, smiling brilliantly at him. She brought her Ipod up under the pretence of switching it off and quickly scanned the screen in search of bugs. She quickly turned it off, mentally reminding herself to tell Alex what she'd found, before sitting on the bed and leaning back on her hands. Simon closed the door and came to sit next to her.

'So what's he done now?' he asked her, running his eyes over her body. Kita resisted the urge to slap him.

'Oh just been his usually annoying self,' Kita replied, 'I mean I spend the normal amount of time in the bathroom and he starts complaining that I'm taking too long. I mean 20 minutes isn't long to spend in the bathroom is it? I know people who spend a whole hour in the bathroom, and that's just for getting ready for bed. It's not _that_ long is it?'

Kita would have laughed at the expression on Simon's face if she could; instead she kept her expression to a questioning one. Eventually Simon shook his head.

'No, not really,' he replied, though Kita could tell he was only saying it because he thought that's what she wanted him to say. She sighed, and smiled at him.

'I knew you'd agree,' she said, voice cheerful, 'I feel as if you understand me better than all the other boys; you seem to know how to make me feel better and it's just so refreshing. Usually the only boys that come near me are the ones who do everything I say just so they can get a bit of me; it's alright at first but then it just gets boring. And then there's the ones who are just plain assholes and just do the opposite to everything I ask just so it pisses me off-'

Kita was silenced when Simon pressed his mouth to hers; inwardly slapping him into oblivion she had no choice but to return the kiss. She felt Simon pushing her down onto the bed and lay back as his hands started to travel up under her shirt.

& & & & & &

Alex was already sat in the room an hour later when Kita walked in, slamming the door behind her. She walked straight to the bathroom door and walked in, not bothering to switch on the light; Alex heard the tap running and, frowning, stood up and walked to the bathroom door. He looked in and saw Kita standing over the sink brushing her teeth with such fury he was surprised the toothbrush didn't snap.

'Kita?'

'Don't talk to me for a minute, I want to get this foul taste out of my mouth,' she replied; Alex raised his eyebrows but stayed silent and walked back to his chair. Five minutes later Kita walked back out of the bathroom and sat on the edge of the bed.

'Next time you can go into the other room,' she said, 'I am _not_ kissing that guy _again!_ Do you realise how sick he made me feel? I swear he hasn't brushed his teeth for the past few days.'

Alex tried hard not to grin, 'You didn't have to kiss him you know.'

'Try telling _him_ that,' she replied, she sighed, 'But you were right, Alex, the room was bugged in every place you could imagine. I don't know what kind but it was like a red dot party on the scanner.'

Alex froze, his mind working in overdrive. He'd found out the floor above them was off limits due to 'Safety Hazards' and it was too familiar for his liking.

'Alex?'

Thinking over what he'd found out about the layout of the building Alex started to compare.

'Alex?'

He shook himself from his thoughts as he realised Kita was knelt in front of him, watching him worriedly.

'You okay?' she asked; Alex nodded.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' he replied; he took a breath and then started to explain what he'd found out about the two floors they were allowed on and the off limit areas on the two floors, plus the fact that the floors above them were off limits to students.

'So what do we do now? All we've got is the fact that the rooms we move to are bugged and there's a lot of off limit areas inside,' Kita asked; Alex nodded.

'We need to get into some of the off limit areas,' he said; Kita nodded.

'And look outside as well, we might be able to find ways into the off limit areas if we look outside,' she said; she suddenly smiled.

'Let's get Mel and James to come with us. That'll give us an excuse to be out together,' she suggested.

'That's a good idea except how do you get those two to walk together with us?' Alex asked.

'Simple really,' Kita replied, 'We ask them separately, and then we 'accidentally' run into each other outside and just so happen to walk the same way.'

Alex nodded thoughtfully, 'I found a large fireplace in one of the large living rooms downstairs,' he told her, 'We might be able to climb up it if we need to.'

Kita glanced at the clock, 'It's only 11, we could start looking outside now,' she said. Alex nodded.

'Here's an idea. You go outside and start looking around, there's a forest with a path through it opposite the front door, you can see it from here. I'll go check the entrances to some of the off limit areas and then meet you out there,' he said.

'Alright then, just as long as Simon doesn't see me going for a walk and decides to follow me,' Kita muttered; Alex sniggered and received a slap for his pains.

'Hey! What was that for?' he demanded; Kita rolled her eyes.

'For making fun of me,' she replied, grabbing her ski jacket and a pair of jeans before going into the bathroom to change out of her skirt. When she came out she put on a pair of trainers, pulled on the ski jacket and walked out.

'See you in a bit,' she said before opening the door.

& & & & & & &

Alex wandered around the building, the knot of worry in his stomach tightening with every corner he turned. He was so lost in his thoughts he walked straight into someone as he turned a corner. He opened his mouth to apologise, but just in the nick of time he caught himself.

'Watch out,' he snapped, looking up and realising who it was he'd bumped into. It was Peters, the man who'd driven them from the plane to the Academy the day before and then taken them to their rooms.

'So sorry, Mr _Moth_,' he said, and then brushed past Alex and continued along the corridor Alex had just walked along. Something about the way he'd said his name made Alex pause for a few seconds; he looked over his shoulder at the man walking along the corridor and made a decision. He waited a few more seconds and then took off after Peters, keeping a good distance behind him. When he turned the corner Alex hurried after him and paused at the bend, leaning around to keep him in sight. He saw Peters pause at one of the doors with a restriction sign attached to it. He paused for a few seconds, indecisive; should he follow Peters now or go in later when he had more gadgets with him? Movement outside caught his eye: Kita was walking along the forest edge, just about to turn onto the path. He cast one last glance at the 'restricted' sign on the door and then turned around and made his way back along the corridor he'd just come. Heading for the forest outside.

_A/N: Hey everyone, I'm really sorry it took me so long to update. I've had new ideas and school stuff bugging me but now the summer is here! Whoo! BUT I am going on holiday for a week on the 12__th__ so there wont be any updates then. However, I am planning on taking my writing stuff with me so hopefully I will by the time I get back._

_Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, it means so much to me. For those of you wanting to see more between Alex and Kita most of the next chapter will be between only them. So please don't kill me for taking so long to update. Thanks again to all my reviewers and to my readers as well. I really love you guys._

_Ciao or now_

_Starsword_


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